Breathes for internal-combustion engines



c. F. FELTZ. BREATHER FOR INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 30. I916.

Patented June 10, 1919.

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CHARLES F. FELTZ, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-FOURTH TOWILLIAM E.

ANDERSON, ONE-FOURTH '].'0 WILLIAM H. LANGLDALE, AND ONE-FOURTH TOSTONAY L. LAN GIDLALE, ALL OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 10, 1919.

Application filed March 30, 1916. Serial No. 87,687.

T 0 all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CHARLES F. Fnurz, acitizen of the United States of America, a resident of the city of St.Louis, State of Missouri, have invented certain ne and usefulImprovements in Breathers for Internal-Combustion Engines, of which thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being hadto the accompanying drawing, forming a part of this specification.

My invention relates to improvements 1n breathers for engine crankcases. Que of the objects is to produce a simple and mexpensive breatherthrough which air may tlow freely in one direction, the new breatherbeing adapted to be secured to the crank case of an internal combustionengine so as to provide for the flow of air to and from the crank casein response to movements of the engine pistons. I

A well known type of the internal combustion engine breathers now in useis in the form of a tube provided with deflector wings which extenddownwardly from the inner face of the tube for the purpose of preventingthe escape of oil with the outgoing air. The deflector wings of thisprior device are inclined downwardly and their lower edges lie in aplane near the center of the breather tube. When the device is inservice, some of the oil collects 0n the inner face of the tube andflows downwardly on the inclined wings and tends to drop from theirlower edges at a point near the center of the tube. However, theoutgoing air, rushing rapidly'along these edges, tends to force the oilupwardly, so the drops of oil at said edges are atomized, reduced to afine spray and carried upwardly with the air instead of being permittedto return freely to the crank case. The oil laden air escapes from theupper end of the breather tube with the result of Wasting oil bydepositing it at points that should be free from oil.

Therefore, a most important object of the invention is to produce anengine breather of the general type referred to above, but which is soconstructed that the oil will 'return freely to the crank case, insteadof being atomized and carried from the breather with the air. ith thisobject in View the preferred form of the invention comprises a breathertube open at both ends to permit the flow of air therethrough. Inclineddefleotor wings, extending upwardly from the inner face .of the tube,form a series of oilrece1v1ng pockets, the latter being open at the topto receive the oil. The oil accumulating on the inner face of thebreather tube and on the bottom faces of the deflector wings, fioWsdownwardly along the inner face of the tube and into the open upper endsof the pockets. Instead of tending to drop from the deflector wings atthe center of the tube, the oil tends to accumulate in the pockets andeach pocket is provided with a discharge port near its lower end so thatthe oil will flow by gravity along the inner face of the tube, pass fromone pocket to another, and finally return to the crank case. Thepressure of the outgoing air opposes the downward flow of the oil, andthe oil usually accumulates in the pockets until the downward pressure,due to the weight of the oil, is sufficient to overcome the resistanceof the air. The returning oil then flows in streams, instead of drop bydrop, and since this oil flows along the inner face of the tube insteadof along the deflector wlngs, it W-lll readily return to the crank case.

Figure I is a front elevation of an internal combustion engine, equippedwith a breather embodying the features of the invention.

Fig. II is an enlarged vertical section, show-mg the breather and aportion of the crank case.

Fig. III is a horizontal section on line III-III, Fig. II.

The internal combustion engine shown in Fig. I may have any desirednumber of.

cylinders A. B" designates a crank shaft mounted in the crank case C.

To illustrate the preferred form of the invention, I have shown abreather tube 1, secured at its lower end to a wall of the crank case bymeans of screws 2. The breather tube extends upwardly from the crankcase, and it is open at both ends to allow the air to flow freely fromthe port 3 in the crank case to an air deflector E at the upper end ofthe tube. The deflector I have shown comp-rises a cap 4 integrallyconnected to the threaded ring 5 through the medium of ribs 6.. Thering?) is screwed onto the upper end of the breather tube 1.

7 designates a screen surrounding the ribs (3 to prevent dust, etc.,from' entering the breather tu be.

Two oppositely disposed rows of inclined deflector wings 8, in the formof segmental webs, extend inwardly and upwardly from opposite sides ofthe inner face of the breather tube 1, so as to -form two oppositelydisposed rows of oil-receiving pockets 9, each of said pockets beingopen at the top to receive the oil. Each pocket 9 is provided, at thelower end, with a discharge port 10 for the discharge of oil at a pointadjacent to the inner face of the breather tube. The pockets 9 of eachrow are pref erably in different horizontal planes, and in alinementwith each other, so the oil may flow freely from the upper pocket of arow, along the inner face of the breather tube, and; through all of theother pockets of the same row; The oil carried upwardly by the outgoingair will collect on the de flectors 8 and on the inner face of the tubeat points where it is not subjected to the entire force of the aircurrent, and then flow downwardly into the pockets 9. It is alsoimportant to observe that the alternating inclined deflector wings arewidely separated from each other to provide openspaces above the upperedges of the oil receiving pockets; the upper edge of each pocket,excepting the highest pocket, being below the upwardly inclined bottomface of the next higher deflector wing, so that the outgoing oil passingfrom said upwardly inclined bottom face will be discharged onto thewalls of the open space above the oil receiving pocket. 7

In actual practice, I have found that the oil willaccumulate in thedifl'erent pockets 9, the geatest quantity being present in thelowermost pocket while only a very small quantity reaches the uppermostpocket. The downward pressure, due to the weight of theoil in thepockets, eventually becomes great enough to cause the oil to flow down-Wardly through the discharge ports 10, in-

stead of dropping from the edges of the deflector wings, where it wouldbe atomized and carried away in the spray. The oil flows downwardlyalong the inner face of and deflectors comprising oppositely dis posedalternating segmental deflector wings extending upwardly from the innerface of said breather tube to provide oppositely disposed alternatingoil-receiving pockets, said upwardly extending alternating deflectorwings being separated from each other to provide open spaces above theupper edges of the oil-receiving pockets and between the separateddeflector wings, the upper edge of each'oil-receiving pocket, except ngthe highest pocket, being below the upwardly extending bottom face ofthe next higher deflector wing so that theoutgoing 011 passing from saidupwardly extending .bottom face will be discharged onto the walls of theopen space above the oil-receiving pocket, said oil-receiving pocketsbeing open at the top to receive the oil, and each of said pocketshaving a discharge port at the bottom for the discharge of the oil.

2. An engine having a crank case, a breather tube extending upwardlyfrom and in communication with said crank case, and deflectors in theform of oppositely disposed Wings extending upwardly from opposite sidesof the inner face of said breather tube to form oil-receiving pockets,the deflector wings being separated from each other to provide openspaces above the upper edges of the oil-receiving pockets; eachdeflector wing, excepting the wing at the bottom, being extended intothe open space above the upper edge of an oppositely disposedoilreceiving pocket, so as to deflect the outgoing oil onto the walls ofsaid open space above the oil-receiving pocket, thereby de' livering theoil from the deflector wings on one side to the walls directly above oilreceiving pockets on the opposite side, said pockets being open at thetop to receive the oil, each of said pockets having a discharge portnear its lower end and the pockets on each side being arranged inalinement with each other and in different horizontal planes so that theoil-passing from the discharge port of one pocket will flow downwardlyby gravity into the next adjacent pocket and finally pass from the lowerend of said breather tube to the crank case.

3. An engine having a crank case, a breather tube extending upwardlyfro-m and in communication with said crank case, said breather tubebeing open at its upper and lower ends to permit the flow of airtherethrough, and two oppositely disposed rows of deflector wingsextending inwardly and upwardly from opposite sides of the inner face ofsaid breather tube so as to form two oppositely disposed rows ofoil-receiving pockets, the deflector wings being separated from eachother to provide open spaces above the upper edges of the oil-receivingpockets; each deflector wing, excepting the wing at the bottom, beingextended into the open space above the upper edge of an oppositelydisposed oil-receiving pocket, so'as to deflect the oil onto the wallsof said open space above the oil-receiving pocket, thereby deliveringthe oil from the deflector wings on one side to the walls directly aboveoil-receiving pockets on the opposite side, each of said pockets beingopen at the top to receive the oil and provided with a discharge port atits lower end, the pockets of each row being formed in alternatingrelation to the pockets of the other row, and said pockets being indifferent horizontal planes so that the oil passing into the pocket atthe top of a row will flow downwardly, by gravity, along the inner faceof said breather tube, through the lower pockets of the same row andfinally pass from the lower end of said breather tube to the crank case.

4. As a new article of manufacture, an internal combustion enginebreather comprising a breather tube adapted to be attached at its lowerend tothe crank case of an internal combustion engine, said breathertube being open at its upper and lower ends to permit the flow ofoil-laden air therethrough, an air deflector at the upper end of saidbreather tube, and two oppositely disposed rows of inclined segmentaldeflector wings extending inwardly and upwardly from opposite sides ofthe inner face ofsaid breather tube to points beyond the vertical centerline of the tube so as to form two oppositely disposed rows ofalternating oilcollecting pockets, the segmental deflector wings of eachrow being widely separated from each other to provide open spaces abovethe upper edges of the oil-collecting pockets and between the separateddeflector wings, the deflector wings of each row, excepting the wing atthe bottom, being extended into said open spaces and extended over theoil-receivmg pockets of the opposite roW, so as to deflect the outgoingoil onto the walls of said open spaces, thereby delivering the oil fromthe deflector Wings of one row to the walls directly above theoilcollecting pockets in the other row, each of said oil-collectingpockets being open at the top to receive the oil and provlded with adischarge port at its lower end for the discharge of oil, each dischargeport being formed near the inner face of said breather tube so that theoil passing through the discharge ports will flow downwardly along saidinner face, and the pockets of each row being formed one above the otherso that the oil flowing downwardly from an upper pocket will flowthrough all of the lower pockets of the same row and finally 'escapefrom the lower end of said breather tube.

CHARLES F. FELTZ.

